


If You Want to Be Happy For the Rest of Your Life

by blueteak



Category: Mermaids (1990)
Genre: Charlotte POV, Gen, Post-Canon, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5512541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueteak/pseuds/blueteak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlotte on what is and could have been at Kate's wedding</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Want to Be Happy For the Rest of Your Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PineapplePrincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplePrincess/gifts).



It’s August 16, 1980. Kate’s wedding day. 

Rachel found a way to throw quite a party, inviting people I’m embarrassed to see she kept up with. Whenever I see some of the ones I’ve told tales to over the years (diamond mines come to mind), I’m tempted to pick right up where I left off and tell them I’m married to an oil magnate in Dallas. We wake up every morning to a feast prepared by a Julia Child-trained chef straight out of Paris. I sit at my desk every morning, the soothing motion of the oil pumps helping me get into my novel-writing rhythm. 

But I won’t tell them that, even though old habits die hard, because my husband Paul, an English professor at Amherst, probably wouldn’t appreciate it. I am a novelist, though, which I don’t think would surprise any of them. And Kate’s still a swimmer, even though she asks Mary Kay representatives now about lipstick instead of grease for Channel swimming. 

She’s got the grease covered, in any event. Jeff, her now-husband, is taking her to England for the honeymoon, and they’ll probably have some cheese (and maybe a little wine, though Kate’s still leery of it since the accident) when they get to France. And they will definitely make it to France, because Kate’s Kate and she went to college on a swimming scholarship even if she hasn’t made the Olympic team (yet). 

I’ve got to go—Lou’s getting ready to do the father-daughter dance with Kate and he’s probably going to need tissues before and after—but stay, dance, and enjoy some star sandwiches for old time’s sake. You know they were Rachel's contribution to the catering.


End file.
